After February 24, 2022, the airport in Gostomel is not just a Ukrainian cargo airport, it is a place of brutal battles between the Russian landing forces and the Defense Forces of Ukraine. During the attempt to seize the airport, the IT infrastructure of the airport suffered devastating destruction.
Before the start of the full-scale invasion, the IT-Integrator team completed the design of a stationary data center in Gostomel for the air transport division of Antonov State Enterprise. Construction was planned to begin in 2022, but plans had to be changed very quickly and adapted to force majeure circumstances. To ensure uninterrupted operation of the enterprise in the conditions of war, a new solution was needed, where time and speed of deployment became mandatory conditions. Taking into account the above, it was decided to reformat the project in favor of a modular data processing center with the possibility of quick movement and installation at any site in any city of the country.
The modular design provides for the ability to quickly disassemble and assemble it at a new location, as well as to transport it on public roads. That is why, during the project, the rigidity of metal structures, special connecting nodes was calculated and ensured, reinforced beams were installed, the roof was designed with the necessary angle of inclination for the drainage of precipitation and the possibility of placing external units of air conditioners.
"The modular data center was manufactured, tested and launched in record time. It consists of two structural elements that create an internal space in which cabinets for IT equipment, air conditioners, uninterruptible power supplies, electrical panels, and fire protection systems are installed. All systems of engineering support, including the structured cable network, were assembled and tested in production, in particular, work under load. This approach made it possible to attract a minimum number of external personnel to start the facility at the installation site, because all systems were configured and tested in factory conditions. This was justified from the point of view of safety and speed of project launch," explained Nataliya Gerts, Deputy Director of Digital Development and Logistics of Antonov State Enterprise.
Reliability and failure-free operation of critical subsystems is provided by backup equipment and its nodes. For example, the redundancy level for uninterruptible power supply and power distribution systems is 2N. The design of the modules, their external arrangement, fire doors, hermetic and fire-resistant, electrical, communication and freon inputs correspond to the E60/I45 fire resistance class. In addition, all solutions comply with current state rules and standards, safety and occupational health and safety requirements, fire prevention and sanitary and hygienic standards, ensuring safe operation by the customer's technical staff.
"The war destroyed not only our usual life, but also became a challenge for our team, which had to change work approaches on the fly, reorient projects to the new needs of customers in military conditions and be useful to the state, the military, volunteers and all companies with which we cooperate . The project to build a modular data center for the Antonov State Enterprise is an example of professionalism, reliability and dedication demonstrated by all parties involved in the implementation, solving a strategically important task," said Maksym, director of the department for work with the public sector and project manager of the IT-Integrator company. box
The project takes into account not only the current needs of the enterprise, but also provides opportunities for scaling in the future. This factor was taken into account, since the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine awaits us.
Vertiv Liebert APM modular UPSs with additional battery cabinets provide a gradual increase in UPS capacity as information technology equipment's power consumption increases. It is also possible to increase the battery life. The Liebert APM UPS was used in the very first Ukrainian ITC in 2014 - since then, the model has been improved and updated, but its architecture, quality and reliability have remained unchanged.
The cooling system can also be scaled. For this, you need to install an additional air conditioner to the existing inter-row Liebert CRD air conditioners. These models have high cooling capacity and a compact body - with a width of 300 mm, one Liebert CRD can remove up to 25 kW of heat.
The MICOD is equipped with all the necessary engineering systems. Infrastructure and environment parameters are monitored using VERTIV Environet software.
A feature of the operation of such products as modular data centers is that the development company, manufacturer and representatives of the vendor of the main equipment guarantee the maintenance of the functionality of both the structure and all the equipment installed, including the backup power source - in this case it was Cummins diesel generator power plant.